A Review of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking-Glass' by Lewis Carroll

"'I had sent my heroine straight down a rabbit-hole... without the least idea what was to happen afterwards,' wrote Lewis Carroll, describing how Alice was conjured up one 'golden afternoon' in 1862 to entertain his child-friend Alice Liddell.  His dream worlds of nonsensical Wonderland and the back-to-front Looking-Glass kingdom depict order turned upside-down: a baby turns into a pig, time is abandoned at a disordered tea-party and a chaotic game of chess makes a seven-year-old girl a Queen.  But amongst the anarchic humour and sparkling word play, puzzles and riddles, are poignant moments of nostalgia for lost childhood.  Original and experimental, the Alice books give readers a window on both child and adult worlds."

Both 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking-Glass' were such strange stories...

Alice lives in a world that simply makes no sense.  This results in a light-hearted, hilarious, and really confusing story.

I liked Carroll's use of play-on-words/phrases.  I think that was what made these stories so funny for me to read.  I think it's also really funny if read aloud at a quick pace.

I'd be really interested in reading psychology books or, better yet, philosophy books attempting to decode this mess of a book.

This is probably one of the most difficult reviews that I've written so far.  There were points in the story where I felt that I absolutely understood what was going on.  I would think, "Okay, in some strange and lopsided plane of the universe, what they're saying makes sense."  But then I would turn around and think, "What is going on?!"

The stories are so short that it wouldn't take very long for one to reread them.  I feel like if you want to get even a hint of meaning out of these stories, you need to read them a handful of times.  They're real mind-benders, that's for sure!

If you're looking for something intriguing and challenging on a different level to read, this would be the book for you!

I give 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking-Glass':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude